How Much Does a Gun Cost in Canada?

5 Nov 2017

2min read

TheGunBlog.ca — Factoid: The average price of a gun in Canada is $564, based on official statistics and some assumptions.

That information and the rest of this article won’t help you budget your next purchase or the cost of getting into shooting or hunting. It probably won’t help you with anything at all, unless you enjoy geeking out about firearms and data about them.

Plinking, Protection, Precision?

We buy guns for a mix of purposes and prices.

Want to go plinking and shoot pop cans or steel plates at 50 metres with your family and friends? Then any $200 rifle will do.

Looking for a reliable machine for protection, hunting or sport? You’ll probably pay $500 to $2,500, depending on whether you want a handgun, rifle or shotgun.

If you’re a collector, long-distance shooter, advanced competitor or investor, you could spend $5,000 to $100,000 or more for precision engineering, rare historical pieces, or works of the finest craftsmanship and art.

Import Value, Retail

Following is the average price for a rifle, shotgun and handgun, based on import values in the 12 months ended September 2017, the latest month for which we have data.

Almost all the firearms sold in Canada come from abroad, and import values are the only publicly available measure of the market. I calculated prices based on data released on Nov. 3 by Statistics Canada.

To indicate the retail value before taxes, I checked with a couple retailers and used a hypothetical markup of 25 percent, but the the actual markup depends on brand, product, seller and buyer (e.g., I pay more at my local gun shop than the Ontario Provincial Police pays to its suppliers for a large order.)

Firearm

Average Import Value

Retail at 25% Markup

Rifle

$445

$556

Shotgun

$404

$505

Handgun

$529

$661

Combined

$451

$564

Another factoid: Average import values were stable for rifles and shotguns in the latest year compared with the previous year (October 2015 – September 2016), and fell more than 11 percent for handguns amid a jump in low-priced guns from Austria and Turkey.

Real-World Prices

For comparison to the real world, here are the lowest and highest selling prices at three popular retailers, chosen for their mix of size, selection, geography and store type (one major chain, two independents). In alphabetical order: Al Flaherty’s Outdoor Store in Toronto, Ontario. Cabela’s Inc. (part of Bass Pro Shops) with Canadian head office in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Calgary Shooting Centre in Calgary, Alberta. Prices were as published on each store’s website today, rounded to the nearest $10.